Apple’s HealthKit platform could face legal problems in Australia

At WWDC 2014, Apple announced HealthKit which was part of iOS 8. It was interesting because according to previous rumors, many had expected Apple to call it HealthBook. That being said, it seems that that Apple could potentially face some legal troubles with the HealthKit moniker because over in Australia, that is the name of an startup company. According to Alison Hardacre, the co-founder and managing director of HealthKit,“It is very flattering that they like our name, but I’m a little let down because how hard would it have been to spend five seconds to put HealthKit.com into their browser and find us?”

Apple might have been planning its entry into health-tracking for quite some time, but it may not have given quite so much thought to the name of its HealthKit platform, as recently announced at WWDC. That’s because an Australian health startup with the same name has come forwards, and it’s none too pleased about Apple apparently borrowing its name for the API of its Health app. “It is very flattering that they like our name, but I’m a little let down because how hard would it have been to spend five seconds to put HealthKit.com into their browser and find us?” Alison Hardacre, co-founder and managing director of HealthKit told Wired. “Everybody worries that Google or Apple will come into their space and their business will die, but no one thinks that company will come into that space and use the same name!” The startup owns both the domain name and Twitter handle for HealthKit.